March 23 2010

Crystal Palace

Crystal Palace and Nottingham Forest have enjoyed a fairly regular fixture over the last 40 years, writes Simon Pophale.

Forest are one of those teams that we have played more in the top flight than in any other division but our record of 22 league matches in the Midlands has only yielded five victories.

Our meetings with Forest go back to the 1921/22 season, which was our first in the Second Division. The match would come early on as the return game at the City Ground was on September 3rd 1921, and although we lost 2-1, this was no disgrace as Forest went on to win the Second Division championship that season. We finished a creditable 14th.

A gap of 27 years would ensure before we would travel to the City Ground again. Forest, relegated from Division Two in 1949, saw third tier football for the first time and for the next two seasons kept up their 100 per cent record against us.

Season 1949/50 saw Forest win 2-0 and the following season we managed to restrict them to a single goal. But this would be a season where Forest would dominate the division, scoring 110 goals and losing only six games all as they cantered to the Division Three (South) title. We finished at the other end of the table, two points adrift of Watford in 24th.

With Forest ascending back into the upper echelons of the football pyramid, it took us 18 years to catch up with the "Tricky Trees" when we took our place in the top flight for the first time in 1969/70.

The early 1970s saw Forest in decline and this reflected in our results against them. We managed a 0-0 draw in 1969/70, a 1-0 win in 1971/72 and although it was back in the Second Division, a 2-1 win in 1973/74.

However, in 1975 a certain Brian Clough had arrived to lead Forest back to the top flight and by the time we met them, not only had they won the League, but were on the way to winning the European Cup as well.

The 1979/80 season was memorable for us hitting the top of the table in early September, but Forest was one of the last matches of the season and a 4-0 hiding at the hands of the soon to be back-to-back European Cup winners, was a sad way to end the most successful season in the top flight.

The following season, we were relegated and Forest again ran riot, underlining the gap in class between the sides, running out 3-0 winners in December 1980.

With Forest being a force in the top flight, it was only when we returned did we meet again and this time, Forest maintained their superiority over us on their own patch with a 3-1 win.

The following season, our best in the top flight, we managed our third victory there with a 1-0 win as we finished above Forest for one of the few times in our history. The following season, Forest exacted revenge with a 5-1 win with goals from Teddy Sheringham (2), Ian Woan, Scott Gemmill and Stuart Pearce all netting.

With both sides taking their place in the inaugural Premier League season, the writing was on the wall from August as both clubs found wins hard to come by; so it was no surprise that both matches ended in draws that season and both clubs were relegated into the second tier at the end of 1992/93.

Both clubs bounced back, with us as champions the following season and with Forest runners-up, a 1-1 draw was one of the few times where we did not yield all the points away from home.

The following season, Forest acclimatised to life in the Premier League much better than we did, as they finished in the European places while we filled the 4th relegation spot and the match a day after New Years Day 1995 ended in a 1-0 win for the Reds.

Since then all of our league meetings have taken place in the second tier and the most memorable, was our fourth victory at the City Ground, which was our most comprehensive, in January 2001 when Mikael Forsell scored twice and Dougie Freedman added a third as we ran away with all three points.

Last Time Out

Last season seems an age ago and a world away when we visited the City Ground for the first time in four years and it was triumphant return as Paul Ifill gave us the lead with a bullet strike and Shefki Kuqi came back from the wilderness to lob a memorable second.

With our current predicament, another repeat of last season will be duly welcomed!